There's a cost to being good stewards of Earth. How much is too much in Topeka area?

The Editorial Advisory Board
·2 min read
The ability for Shawnee County residents to use free recycling bins like this one in northern Shawnee County off 46th Street may soon be coming to an end.
The ability for Shawnee County residents to use free recycling bins like this one in northern Shawnee County off 46th Street may soon be coming to an end.

Recycling is important. Full stop.

We need to be good stewards of our place in the world. Recycling is part of that.

Unfortunately, recycling is becoming more and more expensive. It's to the point that some communities are choosing to opt out.

The Topeka Capital-Journal’s Tim Hrenchir reports the cost of offering curbside recycling has risen to where it is increasingly impractical for government entities. Shawnee County is considering ending its curbside recycling program. The county's recycling efforts are carried out by its solid waste department, which is financed through user fees and receives no tax dollars.

The county when it implemented curbside recycling anticipated that it would bring in $12,980,000 over 10 years. Total revenue over that time period, however, has been only $4,112,688.

Hrenchir reports the solid waste department has 48,793 curbside recycling customers, slightly more than its number of refuse service customers, because some of the latter receive refuse service from other companies but receive curbside recycling service from Shawnee County. The county relies on WM — formerly known as Waste Management — to process these recyclables.

In October, Shawnee County's solid waste department paid WM $6,953.72 for its services.

A new proposed WM contract commissioners are considering — which would extend their relationship by 10 years effective Jan. 1 — would multiply the amount the county pays for the service it received in October 2022 by about 10 times, to $69,548.84.

Additionally, WM showed that 46% of the recycling that arrives at the recycling facility is contaminated, meaning it consists of such items as trash that the county doesn't recycle.

So here’s the deal: We’re caught between a rock and a hard place.

The rising cost of recycling is becoming impractical. But we really should make recycling a priority. It’s unfortunate that so much of the recycling in Shawnee County ends up as trash. We need to do a better job to educate the public on what can actually be recycled.

We’d like to see recycling stay in place, but there’s still a lot of work that needs to be done. We need to drive those costs down.

Good luck to the policymakers here. Do what you can.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: How much is too much when it comes to recycling in Shawnee County?